Video: Haditha eyewitnesses speak

posted at 9:31 pm on May 28, 2006 by Allahpundit

ABC News has video of an interview with one of the survivors which it says was conducted a week after the incident by an Iraqi journalist. The clip includes footage taken inside the homes the day after; it also identifies the lead suspect in the military’s investigation. I won’t mention his name here because he hasn’t been charged yet. Watch the video if you’re curious.

There’s another interview with an even younger eyewitness at YouTube. It sounds like it’s the same girl mentioned in this report from the Times of London, but I can’t be sure: their first names and ages are the same but the surnames are different.

I find it hard to be sympathetic. I trust our guys and this was an area that swarms with terrorists and their supporters. I will definitely reserve judgement but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t justified.

If it happened, punish those guilty. Publicly. Transparently.
The Iraqi people who patiently waited for us to depose Hussein have lived under barbaric rules for decades. They understand all about anger, retribution and soldiers being pushed by circumstance of war to act horrifically. I’m amazed that it hasn’t happened more often-that we know of. It doesn’t tar all of our military with the same brush. Haditha may have witnessed a war crime-it needs to see war justice.

Yeah but I think part of what Conservatives are missing at this point is what you hear Rush refer to as “Controlling the Agenda”. This story isn’t worth Conservatives paying attention to it. The Military can and will handle the matter effectively.

This isn’t news to me – and in the big picture isn’t news to anybody. Europe has had more trouble with Islamic Fascists since 9/11 than we have and lets face it – more people in this country give a crap about Taylor Hicks than they do Iraq.

The Democratically Elected Government in Iraq AIN’T GOIN’ ANYWHERE.

IRAQ (for all intents and purposes) IS OVER.

Short of a nuclear sh*t-storm between Iran and Isreal your gonna see a lull in the action over there for a good long while – just like you saw lulls in the action in the cold war.

Right now the only thing anyone gives a damn about is immigration – and once that’s settled we’ll all get to kick back and watch the Hillary ’08 campaign blow up in a cloud of glorious self-destruction.

Haditha – while tragic – simply isn’t worth paying that much attention to. Don’t let the libs control the agenda – especially when it comes to something that (in terms of the big picture) means so little.

So, “Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t apply to Marines? Why even hold a trial? I mean, shouldn’t we just line them all up and shoot them now? Hell, they probably just enlisted because they were too stupid to get jobs flipping burgers anyway, right?

Lol! Yeah there’s that too – but jumping on the back of this story everyone’s just amplifying what the Liberals are trying to do, which is convict this bunch before the facts have been examined.

The libs can’t tell their ass-end from a hole in the ground on this one. However this plays out won’t make one bit of difference in the long run on the war on terror. All it will do is make folks in the Military hate them more than they already do.

Heavenly Father, on this Memorial Day
May You bless these Marines for they are human!
May You bless and support their families!
May You rally the Corps behind them.
May You take into Your loving hands the souls of all who served and sacrificed for Liberty.
May You bless the United States of America,
and may You damn for all eternity those who seek to use such human frailty for their own purpose.

I hope, if there was a crime committed, the appropriate justice is served on those responsible. But the demagoguery we are about to witness is unjustified. Abu Ghraib + Haditha (potentially) still equates to less than .01% of our troops, the 99.99% should not have their heroism besmirched. I have no doubt that the left will swing Haditha wildly, striking the reputation of any soldier no matter how brave and honorable.

I am saddened not for the impact this might have on the elections in ’06 or ’08, but for the 99.99% of our Armed Forces who are about to be spat on by the likes of Pelosi, Dean and Reid. The action I am going to take out of this is to give more to the 99.99%. They need our support now more than ever. They need to know there are people who genuinely care about them and appreciate their sacrifice. This is the most important time to show support for our troops. Let every criticism from the left be overwhelmed with love from the right.

(posted on another thread, just thought I’d reiterate on Memorial Day)

To all our Military and Support Personnel, past, present, and future, all around the world:

I thank you and your families for your service and your sacrifice that makes possible the Freedom I so dearly treasure and enjoy.

In this most current conflict you have conducted an incredibly humane war resulting in the fewest, (by far) civilian casualties of any war yet.

You are a credit to your country and to your civilization and I am proud of you beyond my capacity to communicate it.

I also thank all our true allies in this fight for their contributions and sacrifices as well. This American thanks you all from the bottom of his heart.

God bless all who stand and fight against the dark forces of this world. Hold your heads high and be proud. History will remember you and honor you. What you have achieved and are achieving is amazing and very greatly appreciated.

We’re thankful for you, no matter what you might hear from our enemies, both foriegn and domestic.

i grant alot of that could be true about hte family the fact however remains that that, like a record of Cindy Sheehan, will be washed over to make them model citizens who were brutalized by the American huns even if the family had been shooting at them with AK-47s. I do believe in “innocent until proven guilty” but by the same token I know how this will be played out on the other side having been there.

It is inconscionable that the MSM is trumpeting this before the investigation is done. True or not, it is not in the best intrest of this country to be publicized. Convict them and punish them if guilty — by all means. We are are country of morals.

We are at war! Is there not some reasonable constraint that can be placed on the MSM. I think we can honor constitutional free speech without allowing the treasonous MSM to sabotage us. They should not be allowed to report this until the facts are out. If they cannot restrain themselves, we should just make a massive troop movement of all of these jouranlism majors to Al-Jazeera. The propaganda of our MSM is clearly in favor of enemy.

The principle here is that an elected government can only be as moral as its constituents. Our President cannot prosecute these traitors without jeopordizing his opportunity to lead this country the right way.

It is up to us. Any truly patriotic lawyers out there? Can we do some sort of class action lawsuit? Tie them up in court. Create spies to infiltrate thier network? It is obvious that there is an overall PR plan to take down the government. If we found evidence of collaboration, could we send them all to Gitmo?

We can’t get organized to fight them, because we’re too busy working to pay taxes for the grants that they produce this stuff on. We need to get organized folks

– True or not, it is not in the best intrest of this country to be publicized.

You are of course assuming Liberals believe in Nationalism – they don’t. We’re all one big global community in their minds. There is no such thing as a “Real Enemy” in their eyes. It’s all just “Crime” and “Misunderstandings” to them.

Furthermore as they fail to recognize nationalism so do they erase the boundries between Freedom and Fascism. In their minds men are not free unless they have wealth, and the wealthiest slave must be considered free. I tend to think that liberals would only be happy when the Iraqis are Godless and Communist. I know that sounds sarcastic but there’s a certain amount of truth to it.

The Islamic Fascists in Iraq are no different than any urban or rual “Poor” in the U.S. (or anywhere else for that matter) and our military is no different than the “Police”. For example in their minds Haditha is no different than Rodney King (generally speaking).

They will blindly assume innocence on the part of the “Poor” and blindly assume guilt on the part of the “Police”. They can do nothing else. They can’t think outside the box they put themselves in. They like to think that’s called being objective. However most of us have the good sense to call it for what it is – inflexible and intellectually incurious.

Venmax wrote: You are of course assuming Liberals believe in Nationalism – they don’t. We’re all one big global community in their minds. There is no such thing as a “Real Enemy” in their eyes. It’s all just “Crime” and “Misunderstandings” to them.

Interesting and enlightening. I have tried to understand the paradigm by which a growing proportion of the country sees the world. What you say makes sense.

Where can I learn/read more, and what is an effective strategy for us internally in this country?

I haven’t read or studied so much as I have come to the only conclusion that makes any sense given the choices they make. I think it primarily comes down to religion.

They Don’t believe in any sort of religion – they only believe in Science. Therefore they don’t believe in the Divine or the Sacred. Therefore they don’t see Human Life as being Sacred and/or connected to the Divine in any way. This is why they essentially view People as “Tools” and/or “Things”. Just random biological matter floating through space.

This is the primary reason they can’t distinguish between Freedom and Material Possessions – it’s both the same to them.

Take the movie The Matrix for example. Remember that guy who sold out his fellow humans to the Squids as long as they promised to make him a “Rock Star” or a “Billionaire” when they hooked him back up into the Matrix?

That’s your typical liberal. A wealthy modern-day Chinese businessman is just more “Free” in their eyes than someone who lives in a trailer park in the United States – even though that China-man can’t say what he believes and would probably be killed or put in prison his entire life if he spoke out against his government. To a liberal he’s got a nice car, a nice house, and health insurance – therefore he’s better off than the American who doesn’t.

What’s more this is why you see them support China’s One-Child policy and the forced abortions that occur there. To them it’s not an abomination that Human Life is being wiped out on a mass scale – it’s “Responsible Birth Control”. Remember there’s nothing special about us. We’re just random biological matter floating through space. They’d rather there were fewer people messing up their chance at a nice car and free health care.

Going on with that line of thinking it’s also why they don’t really champion space exploration anymore. They’d rather we all stop having children at the rate we’re having instead of colonize the solar system.

If you want to simplify it think of it like this. In every way you can think about the human race assume the glass is “Half-Empty” and that’s how a liberal will be looking at it. Assume that people will do the worst most of the time. That they are incapable most of the time, corrupt most of the time, ignorant most of the time, untrustworthy most of the time.

We can’t help ourselves most of the time, so we can’t be trusted to help ourselves most of the time. Which is why the ideas of Freedom and Independence are so meaningless to modern liberals.

The best thing we can do is to keep voting the dumb bastards out of office!